February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
In fact, it was Edinburgh’s first defeat at home in the competition this season and even though the Scots had an opportunity to snatch the result in the final seconds when Chris Paterson’s penalty attempt dropped short, Munster deserved the victory.
With Ronan O’Gara performing much more competently than during the recent defeat by Leinster, and with Paul O’Connell approaching top form again after injury, Munster dominated the first half with tries by Trevor Halstead and John Kelly, and despite conceding a soft score when O’Gara’s pass was intercepted, they were still the stronger side after the interval.
“Edinburgh are a very good team but at Murrayfield and away from home, so to win was special,” said Munster coach Declan Kidney whose side now face a must-win game away to Castres in the European Cup on Friday.
Leinster, who similarly have to beat Glasgow on Saturday to remain in contention in Europe, lost out to Llanelli by 20-18 in Wales but they could have grabbed a draw only for Felipe Contepomi’s conversion attempt of Denis Hickie’s injury time try to bounce back off the post.
Perhaps too ambitious at times, Leinster gave away a couple of tries with some sloppy passing, but they were always a threat to Llanelli with Gordon D’Arcy scoring a superb first half try and also making several searing runs.
On a less positive note, Brian O’Driscoll’s rehabilitation following shoulder surgery continues, but the Ireland captain still looks a long way from his best. His tackling was uncharacteristically weak at times and he made a couple of unforced errors before being replaced by Hickie with 20 minutes remaining.
“I believe Brian will come back a better player,” responded Leinster backs coach David Knox. “He’s much fitter now than he has been and yes he’s still rusty after such a long time out of the game. But I think he’ll make it, he still has a few weeks before the start of the Six Nations championship.”
If head coach Michael Cheika was equally upbeat about O’Driscoll’s comeback, he was unimpressed by his team’s performance. “I’m very disappointed, we played badly and made a lot of mistakes, far too many. It wasn’t the kind of display we were looking for at all and it’s a setback to our hopes of winning the Celtic League.”
Leinster were trailing 20-13 when Hickie broke through a tackle to score at the corner, and although Contepomi struck the difficult conversion well, it curled at the last second and came back off the post. The Irish side has injury worries over scrum-half Guy Easterby and prop Will Green going into the game against Glasgow.
Meanwhile, Ulster are also still in the running after their dramatic 25-23 win over Glasgow in Belfast where David Humphreys delivered yet another master class scoring all of his side’s points and kicking the decisive penalty in injury time.
It needed all of Humphreys’ composure and experience to see Ulster through as Dan Parks had given Glasgow the lead in the fourth minute of added time. It looked as if the Scots had stolen the points, however, they transgressed at the next ruck, and Humphreys coolly slotted the winning penalty.
“If you wanted someone to have a kick at goal in the last second of a game to win the match you couldn’t ask for a better person,” said coach Mark McCall.
Humphreys kicked six penalties, one conversion and also added a try as Ulster registered a seventh victory from 12 starts in the competition. The haul saw him overtake Gavin Henson as the Celtic League’s leading point scorer with 522.
The fall-out from the weekend left Connacht rooted to the bottom of the table after a 27-19 defeat away to the Dragons. Michael Bradley’s team were in the contest going into the final minutes, but a late Dragons’ try sealed the result that leaves Connacht with just 10 points from 12 matches.
David Slemen scored 16 points from three penalties, a try and a conversion while Paul Warwick added another penalty. Connacht turn their attentions to the European Challenge Cup this weekend with a game against French side Montpellier.